Sorry I dont have repair advice yet,
But just wanted to comment about what you’re discovering the hard way.
They don’t design anything to be worked on.
Every thing they do…EVERYTHING is for the benefit of the assembly line ! And to heck with those of us who have to work on them.
( there’s even one Mustang where, to change the starter, you have to pull the engine at least up a bit. It was shoe-horned in there already on the engine sub-assembly.)